Welcome to my journey in life: thoughts on God, homeschooling, and anything homemade. (I took this photo of my eldest in April, 2017.)

May 24, 2011

St. Joseph, pray for us...

So the day before our agent put a for sale sign in our yard, we planted St. Joseph in our garden and said the prayer for our house to sell quickly. 

I do not count myself among saints, nor do I see myself as saint potential, although I wish I could.  I am a sinner.  I struggle so much with little things like my temper and silly desires for things of the world.  My goal is to pray more and be a better example to my kids.

This week however, they were the example for me.

My little Pigeon of 5 whopping years, sat in the back of the car one day repeating, "St. Joseph, pray for us" over and over.  My heart soared and my prayers joined hers.  Soon the other kids joined in and we had a nice chorus going.

After being on the market for exactly one week, we got an offer on our house.  The day before that, we found a house we loved and put an offer in on it.

As all this transpires, I'm thinking, "St. Joesph prayed for us."  And God heard him and us and answered in a big way.

So I am shouting from the rooftops (or my blog), that prayer works and God listens.

Have a blessed day!


May 17, 2011

Laughter Through Tears, etc.

You know that scene in "Steel Magnolias" when Sally Field is sobbing (as are we all) and she says she just wants to hit something and so Shirley MacLaine grabs Olympia Dukakis and says, "Here, hit this!" In that moment we all begin to giggle and Dolly Parton points out that laughter through tears is one of her favorite emotions.

Well, such was my day yesterday.  The Giant and I had a major disagreement and I just wilted from the stress.  I do not like to displease him and I managed to really peave him.  So we both got angry and then we cried and then we talked it out and then...we danced in the living room.  We waltzed and the kids waltzed.  It was pretty spectacular.

And this morning I opened up my email and what was there?

Showing results.  Do I read them or move on?

I read them.

What do they say..."interested and rescheduling for Wednesday."

Oh...my...goodness!  Can it be true?  Our second showing likes it and is coming back again?

Okay I'm not going to let my hopes fly too sky high, but that is encouraging news. 

I called the Giant and he said he really does need to get things in order in case the house sells.  Hee hee.  He cracks me up.

We've been asking St. Joseph to intercede for us and God bless you, St. Joseph, you have.  Many thanks.

A friend reminded me that next I get to pack everything else up to move.  Whoa.  Ugh.  Okay!  The range of emotion is off the scale at this point.

Have a great day!

May 13, 2011

This Is Your Brain On Moving...

I used to be a stickler for details.  I could remember phone numbers after dialing them once.  I could tell you how to get somewhere after driving it once.  I could remember where I put everything I owned.

So either I am pre-menopausal, or my brain is fried from vitamin deficiency, or...I am in moving limbo.

I'm thinking the latter.

Can't remember anything from day to day!  I feel like a great big squashed fruit of some sort.

I've looked at so many houses they all blend into one giant house with a hundred rooms and five pools.

How does one survive this?

My kids are on a homeschool shoestring budget, and their lack of schedule makes me crazy!

Last night my dear Giant of a man took me out to the movies to recoup some of my sanity.  Odd place to try to do that, but it sure helped.

We watched "Something Borrowed," supposedly a light comedy - total chick flick; God bless him!

However, there I was, sitting there when suddenly the movie took a turn for the worse, the characters lost their credibility and I was thinking, "This would be a great example of how not to write a script."  The teacher in me can never keep silent and I haven't seen a really good film in a while.

Wanting to see "There Be Dragons" but haven't made it there yet.

Credibility.  It's important, you know?  These authors spend all this time getting us to like the characters and developing back story to make them believable and then, poof!  It's gone in a moment when they have them make not just a stupid decision, but a blatantly elementary and ridiculous choice based on their age and education and sense of virtue portrayed so far.  Ugh.

This is why I love Classical Writing.  The program is awesome and once again I realize how blessed I am to have found it.  Aaaaaahhhhhhh.  Sweet stuff of which great writers are made (and thinkers).

Check it out if you haven't yet.  Sanity can come in ancient packages!
http://www.theclassicalpedagogue.com/index.php/classical-writing/

May 8, 2011

Homeschool Co-ops

Recently there have been co-ops popping up everywhere in the homeschool community.

Is this a good thing?

Well, that's a good question.  I think the answer is yes, and no.

Here's the picture:  We participated in a Classical Christian co-op two years ago that I found at our local homeschool conference.   I was so sold on it that I directed it for almost two years until the anti-Catholic materials made me decide to look elsewhere.  The anti-Catholic stuff aside, it was a great day.  We made lots of friends, did art, science, and oral reports like we never had before, and really enjoyed the day.

I miss it even now.  But the curricula is purely Protestant and intolerant of my faith, and that won't do.  So off we went on our own.

The kids missed it so much.  I missed it.  Friends and fellowship are good things.

This past year we participated in a smaller co-op and enjoyed that, but the folks live all over Houston and that makes play dates a bit hard.

So I am starting one of my own.  But so far, I haven't really said why.

We enjoyed both co-ops, but I felt one day a week is really hard to get momentum enough for an entire week.  Or, we ended up doing "our curricula" at home and their curricula on that day, then not enough consistency with either all week.

As a former college professor and a lover of classroom discussion, I think to be homeschooled means more than just doing your work at home.  It means setting the bar higher, using curricula that public schools balk at for various reasons, and engaging in the great conversations.  Anyone can school at home.  Get some workbooks from Barnes and Noble and off you go.

I WANT to co-op because I will be with like-minded families twice a week, using curricula chosen by us that we all agree on and will use at home and in class.  At home we will read and discuss and work.  In class we will listen and discuss again, this time hearing the all important feedback from those of a like-minded faith who think differently than me.  In our country we have become offended by opinion.  Many times law suits are filed due to "libel."

I was reading Lene Jaqua's blog (she writes the books I sell, and she summed it up perfectly in her recent post.  Read here:  http://classicalwriting.blogspot.com/2010/12/offen-sensitivity.html
Here is a brief sample from it:
For example ...

...Algernon Charles Swinburne, a Victorian era English poet, held that in calling Ralph Waldo Emerson ‘a gap-toothed and hoary-headed ape’, he had confined himself to ‘language of the strictest reserve’.

...Disraeli said of a political opponent, “He has committed every crime that does not require courage.”

...Mark Twain charged that Kipling ‘‘did measureless harm; more real and lasting harm, perhaps, than any other individual that ever wrote.’’

In modern times any of the above accusations spoken publicly could amount to hundreds of thousands of dollars in punitive damages should the accused decide to file suit.

Not that we want our kids to pass this kind of dialogue back and forth on a regular basis, but we do want them to learn that someone's opinion is just an opinion, and that there are legitimate reasons why one might disagree with it and even possibly be motivated to help change it, with the use of good logic, kindness, prayer, and understanding.

I do not want my kids to grow up thinking that their thoughts and opinions should never be questioned.  "Iron sharpens iron."  I cannot believe that I alone can sharpen them enough and I long for the community of fellowship in the classroom, two days a week to help this happen.

Yet when I am asked, "Do we homeschool?" the answer is an unshakeable "yes."  Because we do.  Even at co-op days, the buck stops here with me.  No public school would give you that privilege.

Lately I have noticed "company" co-ops popping up everywhere.  It's a business.  "Want to start a co-op?  Use our blueprint!  For only $$$ you can run your own co-op."

BEWARE!

Why?  Because a co-op is a living thing.  It's not a business, and it's not a cookie cutter blueprint that will work with every group of 20 homeschool families.  It's organic and has to grow from its members.

The co-op I am starting has some initial goals:  It is Catholic.  It is a full scope and sequence program (not supplemental or social, although those things will be present).

So it is already not for everyone.  We want to use curricula at co-op and at home that creates a continuous week; seamless and streamlined.

And that's where we are so far.  The growth will continue from those who join and we will become a living, breathing community with diversity and likemindedness.

I have been to many homeschool conferences recently where new curricula and new co-op companies pop up each year.

DO YOU RECOGNIZE THE TREND? 

It's called capitalism and it has landed smack in the middle of the homeschooling community.  Folks are ready and waiting to make money off of your honest desire to give your kids the best education you can. 

But I can promise you that some of these are not quality programs and have been thrown together to get money in the bank based on trend tracking.

I am not about quick and easy.  I have chosen to take the hard road in homeschooling, using curricula that is classical in nature and requires diligence to accomplish.  The workbook program is not for us.

Not will our co-op be free and easy, like the wind in your hair on a nice Spring day.  There will be hard classes with problems to solve and homework and all that stuff that was in existence before the industrialization of education.

Beware the trendy businesses that you will find this year at the conferences.  That smiling face behind that table may just be a victim too. 

Co-ops are a good idea, but not pre-packaged and microwaveable.

May 6, 2011

Big Girl's Birthday

My Big Girl is 11.  ELEVEN!

Whew.

Sigh.  Anyway, she wanted an American Girl birthday party and by golly we did it!

So picture this:  We're touch up painting, boxing up for storage, mopping, laundering, hiding, sorting, dusting, scrubbing.  In the midst of all that I take a brief repose to:  cut out and sew a costume, bake queen's cakes and apple tansey after shopping for unknown items like pippins, rose water food flavoring, and currants.

Are you rolling on the floor laughing yet?  Okay, you may think it's not humorous, but you haven't been living my life the past few months.

What I find so funny is how seamlessly it all came off.  We had cake and yummy fruit filled oranges which I got off a blog and now can't remember which one to pass on the info to you.  Forgive me.

But take a look...

She looks so beautiful and so grown up!


Just a few of our special guests.
We gave a souvenir teacup instead of gift bags.
Apple Tansey (care of Colonial Williamsburg recipes), and orange fruit cups.

Okay, this Apple Tansey thing, can you say "Yum?"  Find it at http://www.history.org/almanack/life/food/index.cfm   It's apples fried in butter with cream, nutmeg, rose water, eggs, and sugar.  Yep, thousands of calories at a minimum but oh, sweet heaven!
Queen's cakes, Felicity's favorite.  Dense little cakes but very tasty.  The recipe came out of an AG book.

The girls learned an embroidery stitch called candlewicking and took home their work.  They loved that.  You see, we only think they love TV and video games more, but this was the hit of the party.


What a great day.

What a great Big Girl she is.
Happy Birthday, Big Girl!

Easter Fun

I am ashamed to admit it, but Easter was stressful this year.

In the midst of getting the house on sale and all the chaos that goes with that, Easter was this event looming on the horizon and I did not rise to the occasion.  Thankfully and most blessedly, Jesus did.

I intended to bake resurrection cookies, but forgot.  I did manage to have the kids dye the eggs and do the Easter basket thing.

Grandma sent cupcake mix so we had to make cupcakes and they turned out really cute.

Like, totally cute.  But what cupcakes from Williams Sonoma wouldn't be cute?




The kids looked beautiful and this year, I really noticed how much they've grown.  Easter seems to be a benchmark for growth.  I never notice it at Christmas or birthdays, but every Easter marks a change in clothing size, shoe size or height.  Maybe it's that Spring thing.  I don't know, but here are my babies getting more growed up!

And then there's this:
Not too grown up, thankfully!  How sweet is that?

Lately my Pigeon has become a snuggly, kissy, lovie-dovie.  I'm lovin' it.  Oh yeah.  I get "You're the best mom in the whole world!" and that keeps me flying high.  Or, "Mom, I love you!" out of the blue and my sails are full blown and I'm soaring.

Life doesn't get any better than that.

Easter morning was a blur; baskets, church (very short homily...??...but loved the music and the holy water!) and Easter egg hunts and lunch at a friends home.

Now that the house is on the market and all that hard work is in the past, I can reflect on it and know that we need to slow down next year no matter what is going on.  It's too precious to breeze through and risk missing out on it's many blessings.

May 5, 2011

On the Market!

So the official photographer took some official photos of my exceptionally clean and sparsely decorated home and voila, we are on the market as of tomorrow!

Sigh of relief.

Seriously.

I could sleep for a week.  I just might...or not.

I am elated and exhausted and moving on to bigger and better things.  As I look at all the things I want to blog about they seem a blur in my memory.  Easter, Big Girl's birthday, the whole past month; one... big...blur.

However, I have pictures so my memory is off the hook and you will soon see what cuteness was created in spite of the chaos in my life.

I am suddenly so tired that I am going to go fall into my bed and dream about seeing my house on sale on the internet tomorrow!

Have a sweet night!